The Belize Bus Association is once again rejecting the government's proposal of a consolidated National Bus Company. While they maintain that they want to work with GOB to find a way forward, they say NBC isn't it.
One of the biggest concerns with the proposal is that there is no financial plan that has been disclosed to them. That leaves the bus operators wondering just how much they stand to make, and whether it will be worth it. Thus they say it's impossible for them to agree to the plan at this juncture until they get key information such as a financial model and a 5 year projection of dividends.
The president of the association, Thomas Shaw, told us more about their concerns via Zoom.
Thomas Shaw, President, BBA
"All of what is taking place, there is no solid foundation or anything set. They listened to the budget speech and there wasn't anything mentioned about public transportation. They wanted to know about funding, they wanted to know how the dividends would be shared. We heard about social security along with the government, they would be the major shareholder in this and for the operators, what is left, the dividend will be very small. So they were looking at how the dividend would be worked out quarterly or monthly or yearly, because most operators on a daily basis, they're accustomed to collecting money to survive in terms of their livelihood, paying their light, water, and fuel and all the rest of it. So operators were looking at all of this and trying to figure out how will it be worked out because as the minister stated, remember, you won't own any buses again, it's the company that will be owning these buses and what it is, it all depends on the shares that you have and you dividend will actually be based on that and they were looking at that and they said, I'm giving up my birthright, I'm giving up everything. Some said they don't mind getting out but in other words, they are saying compensate me and let me get out but they cannot just afford to have someone come to your establishment and value one or two buses and that's based on your years of operation. If you work 20, 30 years, when you retire you're looking at pension or a severance pay. Some of the operators said, Mr Shaw, I'm 50, 60 years already. They said it this company form, I don't have any benefits because they won't even employ me so that was another factor."
"After the press release, I'm supposed to meet with the minister on the 16th and most of these that we are discussing right now will be discussed in that meeting and hopefully we can set a meeting for the executive to meet with him and see the way forward but as I said, we need to dialogue and we need to, there's more questions than answers. Operators are looking at the terminals, we're looking at the structure of the shares and why the operators are saying that there's no way under this heaven that you can afford to put the buses out there without touching the fares because it's not all the runs that are profitable. You have the peak and you have the off peak."
Aside from the financial model, the BBA is now calling for additional dialogue, the co-development of a hybrid model with public oversight and private experience, and the adjustment in fares that will be required to sustain the proposed concept.
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